Overview
Each player takes the role of a Directeur Sportif of a professional cycling team riding in the 21 day race.
The aim of the contest is to select the best possible team of nine riders, while operating within the conditions set on team selection.
The better your racers perform during the race, the more points they will accumulate for your fantasy squad.Newly-introduced in 2022 is an additional Stage Hunter competition, where each director will be awarded a total of nine rider transfers they can use during the race - in between the end of Stage 3 and the start of Stage 21 - in order to keep their team competitive throughout the contest.
The Stage Hunter competition is in addition to, and not a replacement of, the main Classic Leaderboard competition, as detailed further below.
Overview - Classic Leaderboard
The Classic Leaderboard competition represents the same contest that regular Velogames directors will be familiar with, and remains the main competition leaderboard on the site.
In the Classic Leaderboard contest, directors must select a team of nine riders ahead of the race start in Copenhagen.
These nine riders will then proced to accumulate points for the director's team, in line with the full scoring system (which remains unchanged from previous years).
The winner of the Classic Leaderboard competition will be declared as the highest-scoring team director after the Final End-of-tour classification points are awarded in Paris.
The Classic Leaderboard competition will continue to be published as the "main" Overall Standings global leaderboard on the site and in Mini Leagues (although as declared in the next section, it will be easy to access the alternate Stage Hunter leaderboard scores too!).
Overview - Stage Hunter Leaderboard Leaderboard
The Stage Hunter leaderboard competition is a new contest held within the game.
At the first rest day after Stage 3, each team director will be allocated nine "Stage Hunter Transfers" to use during the remainder of the race in between the end of Stage 3 and the start of Stage 21 - in order to keep their team competitive throughout the contest.
Team directors will therefore be able to replace abandoned and poorly-performing riders from their team selection, or tactically target upcoming blocks of stages.
Newly-added riders to the team are termed "Stage Hunters", and will score points for the team based on their Stage Perfomance points, but will not score any points for positions in the Daily Classifications points.
Importantly, the Stage Hunter Leaderboard points allocation will stop after the allocation of the final stage's Stage Performance and Daily Classification position points - no final end-of-tour classification points will be awarded to any rider for the Stage Hunter Leaderboard.
The winner of the Stage Hunter Leaderboard will be the team director who has amassed the most points throughout the full 21 stages of the contest, taking into account the active nine riders that were active in the team during each stage.
The Stage Hunter leaderboard will be published as an additional leaderboard within the overall standings section of the website, and also as an additonal scoring tab within each Mini League on the site.
Important Notice
Velogames Fantasy Cycling is not an official partner of, nor claims any association with, any professional cycling race organisation, any international sporting body or any professional cycling team.
Team Entry
You must use the Official Entry Form to submit your team. The Entry Form will be made available once the game is open for entries.
Only one team is allowed per player. Multiple team entries by a single player in a single contest is not allowed and could lead to teams being disqualified from the game. If multiple teams are found, only the last team entered by the player will be accepted as the official entry.
Team Names
Users are expected to refrain from entering abusive or vulgar team names or manager names. If vulgar or offensive team names or manager names are identified, Velogames reserves to right to ask these to be changed, to automatically edit the offending text or to summarily remove the offending team from the game. Velogames Fantasy Cycling exists to celebrate the sport of professional cycling and provide safe, clean fun to participants, so let's all keep it that way.
Entry Deadline
The deadline for entries to be submitted is 18:15 CEST (Central European Summer Time) on Friday 19th August 2022. That is 17:15 in the UK, and 12:15 on the US East Coast. Make sure to check how your own time zone differs from Central European Summer Time to make sure you meet the entry deadline!
Team Selection Criteria
In order that each player creates a balanced team, the following two important constraints are placed on team selection:
Team Budget
Teams are given 100 credits to select their riders. Credits are the Velogames currency. Each rider is given a value in credits, based on their prospective points-scoring abilities. The velocredits values are based on past results and recent form, with an emphasis towards those riders who have been successful in past editions of the race.
Rider Classes
Riders are split into 4 Rider Classes, which reflect their supposed strengths, weaknesses and role within their team. These categories are All-Rounder, Climber, Sprinter and Unclassed Riders.
Each team must contain 2 All-Rounders, 2 Climbers, 1 Sprinter, 3 Unclassed Riders and 1 Wild Card. The Wild Card selection may be from any rider category, and allows a team manager to specialise somewhat in the team they pick.
There are no other team selection criteria apart selecting 9 riders, staying within the 100 velocredit limit and making sure that the correct composition of Rider Classes is selected.
Initial Team Selection
Use the game entry form to select your starting team of nine riders, which will be your eligible team for the Classic Leaderboard.
You can make unlimited changes to your team up until the entry deadline of 18:15 CEST (Central European Summer Time) on Friday 19th August 2022.
To make these team changes, simply click the Change Riders button on your team roster page and use the resultant dropdown menu to reselect your squad.
Only the last team entered by each player will be activated as an official entry.
Automatic Rider Replacements for non-starting riders
It is the responsibility of each directeur to manage their own team line-up as the entry deadline approaches.
Velogames will provide an indicator on each team roster page in the run-up to the start of the race, showing the status of each rider regarding whether or not they are on the most recent start-list.
If, for any reason, a rider does not start the race, they will be replaced in each Velogames team with a suitable replacement, determined by Velogames. Where possible, this replacement be a a rider from the same pro team as the non-starting rider, at a similar credit value. Where such a rider is not available, another rider of similar credit value (or the next available lesser price bracket) will be selected, based on the order of riders in the Velogames database. The decision of Velogames regarding which replacement riders are substituted in is final!
No automatic substitutions will be made for riders who drop out after the race begins - they are only used to ensure that each team starts the race with a full squad of nine riders.
Team Changes
Team Changes - Classic Leaderboard
Once you have selected a team of 9 riders and they have started the first stage of the race, your team for the Classic Leaderboard is set for the duration of the contest - any subsequent Stage Hunter selections (see below) made during the contest will not contribute to your score in the Classic Leaderboard.
The 9 riders that you start the tour with will be the only riders who will score you points for the Classic Leaderboard during the contest.
Team Changes - Stage Hunter Leaderboard
Newly introduced in 2022, the Stage Hunter competition allows for a total of nine rider changes (or "Stage Hunter Transfers") to be used by each team director for the duration of the contest, to be used between the end of Stage 3 and the start of Stage 21.
Stage Hunter Transfers allow directors to make tactical changes to their team of nine riders, in order to keep their team competitive, target upcoming stages and react to unfortunate events such as rider abandons and poorly-performing initial selections.
A Stage Hunter Transfer is counted for each rider change. Changing one rider in and one rider out counts as one transfer, two riders in and two riders out count as two transfers, and so on.
Each team director has a maximum of 9 Stage Hunter Transfers to use use during the contest, which will become active for use at the end of Stage 3.
Transfer deadlines - Stage Hunter Leaderboard
Team directors can make up to nine Stage Hunter transfers during the contest, between the end of Stage 3 and the start of Stage 21.
There is a deadline ahead of each eligible stage when team rosters are locked, and any Stage Hunter Transfers made in the preceding transfer period are activated.
If a transfer is made after the published transfer deadline, the change will not take effect until the following stage. So, make sure to get your changes in ahead of the deadline for each stage!
The transfer deadlines for Stage Hunter transfers are shown below.
| Stage | Deadline (CEST) |
| Stage 4 | 2022-08-23 13:30:00 |
| Stage 5 | 2022-08-24 12:45:00 |
| Stage 6 | 2022-08-25 12:15:00 |
| Stage 7 | 2022-08-26 12:15:00 |
| Stage 8 | 2022-08-27 13:00:00 |
| Stage 9 | 2022-08-28 12:30:00 |
| Stage 10 | 2022-08-30 13:30:00 |
| Stage 11 | 2022-08-31 12:30:00 |
| Stage 12 | 2022-09-01 12:15:00 |
| Stage 13 | 2022-09-02 13:15:00 |
| Stage 14 | 2022-09-03 13:00:00 |
| Stage 15 | 2022-09-04 13:00:00 |
| Stage 16 | 2022-09-06 12:45:00 |
| Stage 17 | 2022-09-07 13:00:00 |
| Stage 18 | 2022-09-08 12:00:00 |
| Stage 19 | 2022-09-09 13:45:00 |
| Stage 20 | 2022-09-10 12:30:00 |
| Stage 21 | 2022-09-11 17:00:00 |
Note that all times listed above are local time (CEST) in Spain, which is one hour ahead of British time and six hours ahead of US Eastern Time. It is the responsibility of directeurs to make sure they submit their selections on time!
Scoring
Your riders score points for their real-life performances in the race, based on the Scoring System. You can also follow the Scoing System link in the main navigation menu for the detailed scores.
Scoring - Classic Leaderboard
Your intially-selected team of nine riders all score points towards the Classic Leaderboard, in line with the Scoring System.
Your riders will score points for Daily Stage Performance (stage result, positions in intermediate sprints and mountain summits, being in the breakaway, and team assists for a teammate winning the stage), Daily Classification Standings (position in the general classification, mountains classification and points classification at the end of each day, plus team assist points for the position of the rider's team in the teams classification) and Final End-of-Tour classifications (final standings in the general classification, mountains classification, points classification, and team assist points for the team's performance in the overall teams classification).
Your intially-selected team of nine riders all score points towards the Classic Leaderboard, in line with the Scoring System.
At the end of the event, the team whose nine riders have amassed the most points is declared the winner of the Classic Leaderboard.
Scoring - Stage Hunter Leaderboard
During each stage, your active team of nine riders will all score points towards the Stage Hunter Leaderboard, in line with the Scoring System, but adjusted by the following key considerations.
Your initially-selected team of nine riders will score points for Daily Stage Performance (stage result, positions in intermediate sprints and mountain summits, being in the breakaway, and team assists for a teammate winning the stage), and Daily Classification Standings (position in the general classification, mountains classification and points classification at the end of each day, plus team assist points for the position of the rider's team in the teams classification), until they are transferred out of your team.
Any Stage Hunters transferred into your team will score points for your team in the stages in which they are active members of your team. However, Stage Hunters will only score points for Daily Stage Performance (stage result, positions in intermediate sprints and mountain summits, being in the breakaway, and team assists for a teammate winning the stage), and will not score points for Daily Classification Standings (position in the general classification, mountains classification and points classification at the end of each day, plus team assist points for the position of the rider's team in the teams classification). This ensures that directors who have selected riders from the start of the Tour gain a modest bonus for each rider's daily classification position, compared to directors who have transferred in a Stage Hunter selection during the contest.
Importantly, no end-of-tour final classification points are awarded for the Stage Hunter leaderboard - the scoring of this leaderboard will end after Stage Performance and Daily Classification points have been allocated for the final stage in Paris.
Official Results
Scores become "confirmed" for Velogames purposes at 23:00 CET during the evening on the day of each stage.
If a rider is removed from the race standings after this deadline, for any reason, the points gained for that stage will stand.
Immediate disqualifications or declassifications (such as for irregular sprinting) will be taken into account when deciding the Fantasy Giro points, as long as these penalties are announced before 23:00 CEST.
Back-dated disqualifications and reversal of results (even for doping offences) will not be taken into account after the 23:00 CET deadline, and the rider will keep his points.
This rule certainly should not be viewed as an acceptance of doping. The technical and gameplay issues surrounding back-dated scoring adjustments are difficult. Also, it is not fair to excessively punish players who have selected a rider in good faith, even if that rider is subsequently exposed as a cheater.
Neutralised and Cancelled Stages
If the race is neutralised for any reason by riders or race organisation, then no stage points (finish, sprints, summits, breaks or stage assists) will be distributed following the point of neutralisation.
If sprint, summits or breakaway points have been gained prior to neutralisation, these points will be added as normal.
Classification points (including team and overall classification assists) will be added to team totals as normal at the culmination of the stage.
Daily classification points will also be awarded as normal in the event of a complete stage cancellation.
Update Schedule
A scoring update will be made on the evening of each stage.
A supplementary scoring adjustment could be made if there are changes in the official published results before the official 23:00 CET scoring deadline.
The aim is to make a daily update. In instances where it is not possible to update the site on a daily basis, a full update will be made as soon as possible to keep the scoring information up-to-date.
Prizes
Entry into the contest is free-to-play, and no prizes are on offer except eternal pride for the winner!